TV News LIES

Republican governor Mike DeWine, the who co-wrote the bill to reinstate Ohio’s death penalty more than 45 years ago, has called for the state to abolish capital punishment, saying it did not improve public safety and could no longer be morally justified.

“I no longer believe the death penalty is a deterrent to murder,” DeWine said on Tuesday. “The moral justification I had for voting for the death penalty simply no longer exists.”

Tuesday’s announcement represents a change of heart for the 79-year-old governor. After Ohio’s reinstated death penalty law was stuck down in 1978, DeWine, then a newly minted state senator, was instrumental in crafting the 1981 law that survived court challenges and remains in effect. But DeWine has softened his stance in recent years, and repeatedly delayed executions throughout his nearly eight-year tenure as Ohio’s governor.

His call for abolition is consistent with the moderate approach to capital punishment that has defined his time as governor, and it puts him at odds with national Republican leaders like Donald Trump, who has sought to expand the death penalty in his second term.

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On Sunday, Israeli settlers torched vehicles and attempted to set fire to a mosque in the West Bank, prompting The Israeli military to deploy troops to quell riots described as violent acts by "Israeli civilians."

In the village of Burqa, settlers set fire to a car and broke down a mosque door, setting its entrance alight before fleeing, according to Wafa. In nearby Deir Dibwan, settlers torched two vehicles, the Palestinian news agency reported.

Security forces were dispatched to the Binyamin Brigade area to disperse riots and extinguish fires, the military said. The military stated forces "strongly condemn all acts of violence."

Days before these attacks, the United Nations warned settler violence in the West Bank had reached record levels, averaging six attacks daily. More than 2,200 Palestinians have been displaced this year due to such violence.

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The EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has privately compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to apartheid-era South Africa, exposing a sharp contrast between her closed-door remarks and her public support for Israel.

Euractiv reported that the EU foreign policy chief made the comparison during confidential talks with Mexican officials in Mexico City, where she travelled from May 20 to 22 as part of a senior EU delegation.

Officials and diplomats, including people present at the meeting, told Euractiv that Kallas spoke about a visit last year to South Africa and its apartheid museum in Johannesburg.

She reportedly linked Israel’s rule over Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank to South Africa’s system of racial segregation, which lasted from 1948 until the early 1990s.

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Nearly 100 British MPs and peers have signed a letter calling for an upcoming London event advertising the sale of land in illegal Israeli settlements to be cancelled, warning that it could implicate the UK in international war crimes. 

The Great Israeli Real Estate Event is scheduled to be held in London this Sunday, but its location is being kept secret.

Andy McDonald, an MP for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East, published the statement on X on Friday, urging the UK government to prevent the Great Israeli Real Estate Event from taking place.

"The govt has an opportunity to uphold obligations under international law and take action against Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine," McDonald wrote. 

The letter, sent to Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, described the event as "firmly embedded in Israel's project of colonial expansion" as it facilitates the sale of land seized from displaced Palestinians.

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A 20-year-old Palestinian American woman has been held in Israeli military detention for nearly two weeks after Israeli soldiers stormed her family home in a pre-dawn raid on 2 June.

Sama Safi, a psychology student at Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank, has not been charged with any crimes. A spokesperson for the Israeli military said she and three other women detained around the same time were arrested “after promoting hostile terrorist activity and additional terrorist-related activities”.

Several US legislators have called for Safi’s release and her family has warned that she has a chronic medical condition that requires regular treatment.

One of the other detained Birzeit University students is a member of the Palestinian women’s national soccer team; another player from the team was also detained before being released earlier this week. The four students are being held at an Israeli detention and interrogation center in Jerusalem notorious for its record of abuse.

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The head of the Palestinian Football Association, Jibril Rajoub, has been denied a visa to enter the US, in the latest case of a senior official being barred from attending the 2026 Fifa World Cup.

While the Palestinian national team did not qualify to play in the tournament, Rajoub, who possesses official Fifa accreditation, had planned to travel alongside global football delegates to attend the matches.

He was able to watch the opening match between Mexico and South Africa on Thursday in Mexico City, where he remains now.

He said the visa denial was an unfair and a politically motivated restriction on global football representatives, noting a stark contrast to the 2018 World Cup in Russia, which he attended without facing diplomatic obstacles.

"I don't believe that it's fair to use or to abuse and deny the right of all footballers all over the world to attend," he said.

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